Penhayle Bay

[Gwiwer]

So Rick, whereabouts will you be moving to?

 

Yet to be confirmed.

 

Current thinking is to obtain a short-term lease on anywhere suitable and probably, based on current searches, around Kew Village, Brentford or the better areas of Ealing.  That would be only until we sort ourselves out and perhaps for 6 - 12 months.  Beyond that we are not decided and location will be determined by employment and market prices.  We are scanning a wide area but not, on the whole, north of the Thames as congestion at all crossing points slows journey times painfully if using road transport.  Including buses.  We are also looking well outside the immediate area into the commuter belt though are wary of travel times and the need to rely on a seat being available on the trains.

[Wigan Wallgate OO Gauge]

Well I used to live in Haywards Heath a few years ago and I'd recommend it!! Good transport into London too and also the Bluebell railway isn't that far away

[DougN]

Rick, there is no need to feel this is a one way trip. No doubt the number of flights will be reduced but as you have many friends here in Melbourne and Australia there is no need to feel that the friendship has disappeared! We will drop in on you to see the new layouts and depending on what is happening you may chose to drop back down under. I have family in London and yes my sister would like me to drop in and see her, if our family was smaller ie not 4 but 3 or even 2 we may be choosing to drop in to London more often!

 

Keep positive... you never know in 2018 the Melbourne BRMA meeting may be at your place!

[Gwiwer]

Haywards Heath is probably a little far for our purposes at least for now.  Maybe for a more permanent home in a couple of years.  I know the area and Lindfield is indeed rather nice but priced to match I believe.  If we were that far from work we might consider the Uckfield line as a less crowded alternative.  Busy, fewer trains, but not necessarily full and standing from the terminus nor from the first few stops up the line.

 

In the meantime Penhayle Bay is still running and a few little jobs are still being done to keep it in good shape.

 

Coupled behind the Peak is the recently-purchased Hi-bar wagon which was weathered by its previous owner.  This is a Mainline-style (Bachmann-badged) wagon which arrived with plastic wheels.  These have been replaced with new metal wheels to advantage.

 

 

A closer view shows the wagon to have been very well weathered and detailed

 

 

Also on the curve below Wheal Julia and on the cliffs above the beach a maroon "Western" leads the overnight sleeping car train, luggage van first behind the loco, from which a few curious faces peek from behind the blinds to see where the night's journey has brought them.

 

 

The fence here was damaged some time ago by a roaming possum.  I have intentionally left it as a fence in need of some repairs.

 

 

Meanwhile at the clay dries a class 22 waits for the road with a short freight including loaded coal wagons

 

 

 

With the freight having gone on its way the up No.1 Siding was then host to a parcels train

 

 

Which was passed by another parcels working on the Down Main led by a filthy maroon Warship offering some contrast to the rather cleaner green one

 

Edited October 6, 2016 by Gwiwer

[bigwordsmith]

Hi Rick

 

You could try Horsham - the trains aren;t too bad from there although further down the line are a bit of a pain

[Gwiwer]

Rick, there is no need to feel this is a one way trip. No doubt the number of flights will be reduced but as you have many friends here in Melbourne and Australia there is no need to feel that the friendship has disappeared! We will drop in on you to see the new layouts and depending on what is happening you may chose to drop back down under. I have family in London and yes my sister would like me to drop in and see her, if our family was smaller ie not 4 but 3 or even 2 we may be choosing to drop in to London more often!

 

Keep positive... you never know in 2018 the Melbourne BRMA meeting may be at your place!

 

 

Thank you Doug.

 

In no way do I see a move as diminishing any friendships.  Indeed it may well strengthen them as we take more time and effort to maintain contact when we cannot see each other.  We have discussed the possibility of a return in 3 - 5 years time, to which end we hope to be able to keep the house here and lease it out, but there are some potential hiccups.  We haven't even left; until we do we cannot come back!

[Budgie]

A closer view shows the wagon to have been very well weathered and detailed

 

Closer views can be cruel. The buffers on that wagon would look better after a couple of strokes of a needle file.

[Gwiwer]

Closer views can be cruel. The buffers on that wagon would look better after a couple of strokes of a needle file.

 

 

That wagon and many others!  They would also benefit from a little silvering of the shanks and greasing of the buffer faces.  All tasks which will now have to wait for another day

[Gwiwer]

British Railways Board                           

 

PUBLIC NOTICE

 

WITHDRAWAL OF RAILWAY PASSENGER AND FREIGHT SERVICES

BETWEEN PENHAYLE BAY and TREHELIGAN; also the St. Agnes and Ponsangwyn branches

 

The Western Region of British Railways hereby give notice that on and from a date to be specified but not later than Easter Monday 17^th April 2017 the railway passenger and freight services on the Penhayle Bay Railway will be withdrawn.

 

PENHAYLE BAY and TREHELIGAN stations will be closed to all traffic.

 

PONSANGWYN goods depot will also close to all traffic.

The line between Treheligan and St. Agnes will also close to all traffic.

 

The Secretary of State for the Environment has consented to the above closures which will take effect EARLIER than the date stated if circumstances so require.

 

It appears to the British Railways Board that the following alternatives exist in the general area:

         Llanbourne Station

         Newton Broadway Station

 

Bus services in the area are also operated to and from Newton Broadway station. 

 

If objections are received to this proposal negotiations may be entered into with person or persons willing to ensure the future of all or parts of the Penhayle Bay Railway.

 

BY ORDER – CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER 

 

 

 

AN OBJECTION HAS BEEN RECEIVED TO THIS PROPOSAL

 

In accordance with the relevant legislation there must now be a Public Enquiry held to determine the future of the Penhayle Bay Railway.

 

Certain assets have already been disposed of or are under offer.  The outcome of an enquiry WILL NOT affect these transactions.  

[SRman]

 

 

 

AN OBJECTION HAS BEEN RECEIVED TO THIS PROPOSAL

 

In accordance with the relevant legislation there must now be a Public Enquiry held to determine the future of the Penhayle Bay Railway.

 

Certain assets have already been disposed of or are under offer.  The outcome of an enquiry WILL NOT affect these transactions.  

 

Just let us know who the objector is, and we'll muster the Blackburn hijack team to wring the cash out of them ensure fair play.     3:)

[Gwiwer]

Just let us know who the objector is, and we'll muster the Blackburn hijack team to wring the cash out of them ensure fair play.     3:)

 

 

Brother-in-Law, who resides on a large rural block in the sticks and almost at the proverbial black stump has a shed which would make most men weep.  It looks tiny on his block but it already houses multiple cars, motorbikes and boats plus the machine tools required for his spare-time job of hand-building race-bike gearboxes.  He's installing a mezzanine floor (!!) which is purely for storage and which will more than amply accommodate a dismantled Penhayle Bay.  It might even accommodate a reconfigured if somewhat smaller operable layout though BiL has no interest in such things.  As I have indicated before the layout is unlikely to dismantle nicely and considerable work will be required to ever have it running again once it closes.  But there is no reason why this could not be done.

 

It allows for a future in which we might return in due course to Australia - though that is not on the radar as things stand - or for a sale at some future time as opposed to simply being stripped and broken up by next Easter.  It might even be possible to ship it over in pieces and restore some or all of it once we have permanent accommodation in the UK.  The long-awaited D600s might yet run on the layout!

 

It's worth more than a passing thought ......... 

[Andrew P]

So a good Plan ''B;; then Rick, fantastic news.

[brianusa]

Always good to have a Plan B, Rick.  I had one when I first came to the US; I saved up enough to fly home if things didn't work out.  Fortunately it was a good move over here but one can't foretell the future.  With any move, one has to settle somewhat, look for a house, a car, find the nearest grocery store and get used to any commute.  This automatically makes the old way of life disappear rapidly and if marriage occurs, then it goes that much faster.  So given that you and your wife will be gainfully employed, signed a mortgage and settled in back home, there will not be that much chance of a return to the land of OZ.  I left all my 'treasures' at my parents house in case of Plan B, and there they stayed and they had to dispose of it all, literally!

 

We're still here so it worked out OK and most of my 'treasures' have been replaced so I wish you and your wife every success back home.  I must admit to missing the old place every now and again but not enough to give up what we have achieved here.  Perhaps it might be best to concentrate on a new layout, I always enjoyed PB but it represents the past so will look forward to some more of your modelling for the future.

 

Brian.

[Gwiwer]

Entirely unrelated to matters Penhayle is the small Leigh Bus Garage diorama which is home to my collection of London Country vehicles.  

 

Progress of a sort arrived today when RT1018 returned from the paint shop at RG (Reigate garage) in the new NBC light green with white relief.  Hitherto all my LCBS / LT Country Area vehicles have been in Lincoln Green as I dislike the NBC corporate style.  It was however a sign of the times and the fact that a small number of elderly RT vehicles was so adorned was also a strange phenomenon related directly to the need to keep them in service when more recent one-man types were hopelessly unreliable.

 

 

 

Leigh is a village more or less in the middle of a square the corners of which are Dorking, Reigate, Horsham and Crawley.  Of those all bar Horsham had London Country garages of their own.  Leigh, which I have coded LE, allows me to collect vehicles with a range of Surrey and Sussex destinations fitted.

 

Edited October 11, 2016 by Gwiwer

[Peter Beckett]

Hi Rick,

love the buses. I still have nightmares driving along the B158 out of Hertford in 1972 and seeing ahead over the hedges a large green double decker bus heading my way. My Hillman Minx seemed to fly up the left hand side of the bank and how the LC bus missed me is still a mystery! 

 

Peter

[mullie]

I remember the 339 service which had to stop going up Warley Hill in Brentwood because the elderly buses could no longer make it, that would be late 70s early 80s I think? The buses were by then unusual in the area I think because they were still double deckers and the entrance was open and at the back.

[brushman47544]

How do you know Leigh? I was brought up up the road in Brockham, so have several model buses in London Country colours on local routes, quite a few reworked by Nigel Mitchell (LBRT) before he retired.

[Gwiwer]

I remember the 339 service which had to stop going up Warley Hill in Brentwood because the elderly buses could no longer make it, that would be late 70s early 80s I think? The buses were by then unusual in the area I think because they were still double deckers and the entrance was open and at the back.

 

The 339 was a long and wandering route from Harlow to Warley by way of Epping, Ongar and Brentwood.  Along the way it served a few other quite modest villages in distinctly unpromising territory.  It was home to Harlow's RT buses for some time after the town services there went over to farebox operation and AN-class Atlanteans when one might have expected the rural routes to be converted first.  In the end it succumbed to necessity and the RTs gave way to hired-in Southend Corporation Leyland Titans and the route was also truncated at Ongar in a swap with Eastern National.  LCBS gave up the Ongar - Warley road which became ENOC's 239 worked from Brentwood garage and usually by early Leyland Nationals while the former Brentwood route 269 thence to Grays became LCBS route 369 and worked from their Grays garage by new Bristol LHS BN-class vehicles.  For a short time I worked in Kelvedon Hatch and was thus a user of the 239, as it had become, and was able to guide drivers unfamiliar with its various Coxtie Green and Navestock Side variations around some unsignposted lanes!  I did also manage a couple of RT rides between Ongar and Harlow one of which was combined with an equally unlikely RT ride out from Romford on the red bus network's least-frequent route namely the 175A.  Ongar lost all RT operation in the late 1970s and subsequently lost all connection with London Transport when the tube line closed; the 175A became an even more infrequent 247B with single-deck Bristol LH BL-class operation until it was finally withdrawn and the 339 morphed into part of the 500-group when LCBS was broken up and privatised and with the Epping - Ongar section for a time operated by LT red buses as the "rail replacement" 201.  

 

How do you know Leigh? I was brought up up the road in Brockham, so have several model buses in London Country colours on local routes, quite a few reworked by Nigel Mitchell (LBRT) before he retired.

 

I spent my later school years in Worthing and having an interest in buses along with railways soon started wandering at weekends.  A friend lived half-way up the A24 in Washington and with a little parental generosity is was possible to have a lift out to that village early on a Saturday morning in order to catch the first Southdown bus thence to Horsham at 07.07, the 07.00 off Storrington dormy shed and often their "pet" Leopard no.204.  This dropped us in the Carfax in time for a morning ride up to Dorking aboard, at first, a green RT and then the magnificent RCL long Routemaster coaches cascaded from Green Line to bus work on the 414.  Various perambulations of the highways and byways of the London Country network then followed which from time to time took in the very indirect 439 which passed through Brockham twice on its way from Dorking to Parkgate, Newdigate, Holmwood, Dorking (again), Leigh and eventually Reigate and Redhill.  The 439 was always an RF as nothing larger was thought capable of crossing the river bridge near Leigh.  In later years it was proven possible to squeeze a short Leyland National (SNB-class) over it though it was extremely tight.  The 412 turnround at Sutton (the Holmbury St. Mary one as opposed to any of the other Suttons in Surrey) was also really tight with the RF reversing between hedges into what seemed like an impossibly small space.  Only two or three locally-based drivers ever performed this manoeuvre on a regular basis.  The award for least-likely route also went to the 412 for its totally uninhabited leg up to Dog Kennel Green at Ranmore Common yet amid all the cuts of intervening years this section still has a bus service!  I couldn't then and still cannot see the point of it.  

 

The homeward leg always ended on the 414 but according to schedule picked up variously at Dorking, Reigate or sometimes taken throughout from West Croydon, before joining the 21.12 Horsham - Worthing bus (and dropping my frined in Washington) which formed part of the late turn Horsham driver's duty; I alighted at 22.27 but he had to return eight minutes later all the way to Horsham and usually for no revenue at all.  While that route still manages an hourly daytime service the evening buses are no more.

 

I have also enjoyed cycling between London and the Sussex coast and came through Leigh on several occasions.  As a fairly central location in Surrey to place a Bachmann bus depot with Kingsway signage, Metcalfe kerbing, EFE stops and Peco backscenes it felt comfortable.  The buses are EFE and (apart from a few out-of area ones such as a 370, a 388 and a 458) remind me of usually happy times riding around what no-one could ever really consider to be "London" on a Golden Rover ticket (75p, issued as five 15p Gibson tickets until Dorking crews gained Setright machines) valid on almost all LCBS routes for the day.  How far could one get?  Allowing for the car hop to Washington in the morning we reached LCBS's farthest reaches at Hitchin, Bishops Stortford and Aylesbury.  On a working day when the lift wasn't available and a Golden Rover wasn't available either until after 09.30 it was still possible to reach Stevenage, Luton and Hertford and on these days it was by bus all the way out and back.  I reckon I could drive the 414 route from memory today were it not for the many road changes which have occurred over the years.  And my favourite London vehicles of all time are still the RCLs.

[mullie]

I grew up in Pilgrims Hatch, went to Bentley Primary School near the golf course most of my friends lived in Kelvedon Hatch. I used the 239 to get into Brentwood after cycling a mile as we lived on a farm just inside Doddinghurst. I lived in Navestock for three years in the late 80s,  I also lived in Ongar for two years in the early 90s and my brother still has a business based there so the places you are talking about are well known to me. 

 

In the course of your post you have mentioned just about every place associated with my growing up and adult life until I was thirty apart form my three years living near New Cross when at University!

 

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

Edited October 11, 2016 by mullie

[Gwiwer]

 

 

In the course of your post you have mentioned just about every place associated with my growing up and adult life until I was thirty

I could throw in Peartree Green near Doddinghurst where the young lady of the day lived and Blackmore where we used to sit and feed the ducks at the pond - which was also the bus terminus for the 260 from Brentwood  And the occasional morning hike on a Friday to catch the weekly 263 to Brentwood from St. Vincent's Hamlet.  Back in LT days the 339 ran some Coxtie Green shorts from Brentwood at peak times.  The duty was something like Harlow - Warley -Coxtie Green - Warley - Harlow which was OK if you had a good bus, a decent bladder and it wasn't a cold windy day!  One or two of the conductors recounted shifts where they hadn't taken a fare for an hour or more on the Ongar - Warley and back section in he evenings.  You sat on the back seat downstairs and watched the darkness trundle past.

[Peter Beckett]

  On a working day when the lift wasn't available and a Golden Rover wasn't available either until after 09.30 it was still possible to reach Stevenage, Luton and Hertford and on these days it was by bus all the way out and back.  I reckon I could drive the 414 route from memory today were it not for the many road changes which have occurred over the years.  And my favourite London vehicles of all time are still the RCLs.

Rick,

I used to live on the 414 in Hertford in the early 70,s, 111 Ware Rd, Hertford to be precise. Alas it's no longer the 414 as that now goes up Gallows Hill. Thanks for bringing back happy memories.

 

Peter

[Gwiwer]

Without wishing to suggest any memory failings on any part the 414 in LT / LCBS days was always West Croydon - Horsham and went nowhere near Hertford.  The northern routes were numbered in the 300-series and the southern in the 400-series with very few exceptions and with relatively few meeting places.  One spot which account for both was Uxbridge where the 305 and 455 were different routes to High Wycombe and where the 305, 321 and 347 met the 455, 457, 458 and 459 amid a sea of red buses.

 

I can trace the use of 400-series numbers in the Hertford area to post-LCBS days from around 1980 onwards but no 414 and am confused by Gallows Hill.  Unless that is a local name the nearest I can find is over in Abbots Langley north of Watford.

 

Hertford (HG garage, on Fairfax Road) did have Routemaster coaches on allocation however, though of the standard length RMC type, since they ran half the 715 Green Line with GF (Guildford) having the other half. When that went one-man in 1971 the coaches were refreshed for bus use and appeared in Hertford on the 341 to and from St. Albans and on a shared allocation with that city's SA garage of the same type.

 

The 414 was run in roughly equal measure by DS (Dorking) and RG (Reigate) using RCLs displaced from the 721, Aldgate - Brentwood, run by Romford Express (RE) garage when that route was converted to one-man operation.

Edited October 12, 2016 by Gwiwer

[Gwiwer]

And while on the subject of Rubber-Tyred Replacements the final Penhayle Bus Rally took place this week.  This has been an annual event in the fairly restricted car park at the beach and has featured vehicles from different areas and eras both parked for judging and inspection and offering rides around the area.

 

A Mercedes minibus from the now-defunct but recent-era Western Greyhound is parked alongside a much older Bedford from the Bere Regis & District fleet.  The first Leyland Atlantean in the City of Portsmouth fleet is beyond and at the far end is a Brighton, Hove & District Bristol FS.  The Southdown "Queen Mary" Leyland PD3 open-topper proved as popular as ever for open-top tours.

 

 

On the opposite side of the car park the London contingent comprised a long RML-type Routemaster from Upton Park garage on the 15 to East Ham, an AEC Merlin MB-type on the 81B to Heathrow Airport and country bus AEC Regal RF-type on the 435 East Grinstead town local.  To the right of that RT1018 in its new NBC livery is on the 453 from Chelsham garage to Caterham-on-the-Hill, not normally a crew duty but probably standing in for a failed AEC Swift.  The red Bristol VRT is in the livery of Hedingham & District, a long-lasting Essex independent which is adjacent to an AEC Reliance of Devon General on the 9 from Exeter to Sidmouth - a route and number still in use by DG's successor Stagecoach Bus.  On the far right is a Leyland National of Western National, the operator local to the themed area, and one of a type imposed upon the operator by National Bus Company management.  They were far too large and thirsty for Cornish rural operations and were loathed from day one.  The livery is the second post-privatisation scheme.

 

On the railway a single-car class 153 unit drifts downhill to the station stop carrying a Cornish promotional livery

 

 

Out on the road runs a pair of former Green Line coach Routemasters pass at Treheligan station approach; on the left a long RCL-type claims it is on a 414 short working for Reigate while on the right is a standard-length RMC-type.  Wearing full Green Line colours (pale green relief not bus yellow as on the RCL) the destination is set for route 15 to Paddington and shows this to be the preserved RMC1461 which ran in London on the 15 in these colours until very recently.  RMC1461 is also one of the very few London buses I have actually driven.

 

 

Another visitor on the road runs was this early Southdown Bristol VRT.  The first of the type were split between the major centres of Brighton and Portsmouth with this one suggesting it is working the long route between Southsea and Petersfield which the type operated for many years.

 

 

Finally a pair of London buses.  Leading is RT1018 having temporarily escaped the car park display at Penhayle Bay while behind is a former DMS-class Daimler Fletline of a type unloved in London (despite 2646 of them being delivered there) and despatched as hastily as possible to the provinces.  Western National snapped up quite a number as cheap mid-life vehicles despite having no experience of the type previously and despite their 14' 6" height causing problems with low bridges and trees cut to suit the previous tallest vehicles at 13' 8".  They replaced crew-worked vehicles which were life-expired and lumbered awkwardly around country lanes for a number of years.  Both buses wear NBC leaf-green livery with the RT having the "Mk2 logo" on a white square (previously it had been a white logo on the green livery) and the DMS carrying the Cornish Fairways branding authorised in the later years of NBC when they had realised that big and corporate wasn't best after all and a measure of local identity autonomy was returned to operators.

 

 

Some of these buses will still be around for Saturday's running day and there may be some others arriving as well.  If anyone wishes to come and would like the address please PM me.

Edited October 12, 2016 by Gwiwer

[brushman47544]

This dropped us in the Carfax in time for a morning ride up to Dorking aboard, at first, a green RT and then the magnificent RCL long Routemaster coaches cascaded from Green Line to bus work on the 414.  Various perambulations of the highways and byways of the London Country network then followed which from time to time took in the very indirect 439 which passed through Brockham twice on its way from Dorking to Parkgate, Newdigate, Holmwood, Dorking (again), Leigh and eventually Reigate and Redhill.  The 439 was always an RF as nothing larger was thought capable of crossing the river bridge near Leigh.  In later years it was proven possible to squeeze a short Leyland National (SNB-class) over it though it was extremely tight.  The 412 turnround at Sutton (the Holmbury St. Mary one as opposed to any of the other Suttons in Surrey) was also really tight with the RF reversing between hedges into what seemed like an impossibly small space.  Only two or three locally-based drivers ever performed this manoeuvre on a regular basis.  The award for least-likely route also went to the 412 for its totally uninhabited leg up to Dog Kennel Green at Ranmore Common yet amid all the cuts of intervening years this section still has a bus service!  I couldn't then and still cannot see the point of it.  

 

What always amused me about the 414 as operated at that time was that the Horsham Carfax buses did a double run in Dorking to the railway station whereas the Capel Laundry shorts used to stay on the A25. The 439 was the same, with most not going via the station. With two stations being served (Deepdene and Dorking (North)) you'd have thought it would be worthwhile all buses going that way...

 

As you say the 412 was an oddity in that the bus was outstationed/parked overnight at Holmbury St Mary and had a regular driver as a result. Before the 412 number was rerouted, the service to Dog Kennel Green was the 433, also serving the village of Coldharbour and operated by GSs.

 

As for the Flanchford Road bridge in Leigh, for a year I went to school in Reigate on the 439 and that used to see, incredibly, long MB Merlins as well as RFs. On a couple of occasions I was late for school when we met another large vehicle on the run down to Reigate Heath.

 

And "The Volunteer" pub in Sutton where the 412 used to terminate is still there and was quite good when I was last visited a few years ago.

[Gwiwer]

Quietly waiting .........